The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Deadly drone in Jordan likely went undetected, report says
Base had no defense system capable of shooting it down.
U.S. forces probably did not detect the approach of the Iranian-made drone that killed three American soldiers last week at a remote base in Jordan, and there was no air defense system on site capable of shooting it down, the military’s initial assessment of the attack has found.
The early findings indicate that the drone may have been missed “due to its low flight path,” a U.S. defense official with direct knowledge of the assessment told The Washington Post. Additionally, this person said, the base, known as Tower 22, was not outfitted with weapons that can “kill” aerial threats such as drones, and instead relied on electronic warfare systems designed to disable them or disrupt their path to a target.
A common strategy among drone operators and other pilots seeking to minimize or evade radar detection is to fly low to the ground. Another U.S. official affirmed the military’s belief that the drone flew too low to be detected. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive and ongoing investigation. Defense officials have stressed that assessments can change as investigators learn more.
Taken together, the preliminary findings appear to undermine previous assertions that U.S. air defenses mistook the attacking aircraft for an American drone returning to the base about the same time, and they raise new questions about the Pentagon’s ability to keep pace with the threats facing U.S. personnel deployed across the Middle East since the war in Gaza set off an acceleration of violence.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military activity throughout the region, has declined to say whether officials believe the militants responsible had knowledge of the base’s limited defenses.
In a statement, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Central Command continues to review the attack. “For operations security reasons, we won’t discuss specific force protection measures or potential posture changes,” she said. “However, as always, we are committed to taking necessary measures to safeguard our forces who serve in harm’s way.”
Tower 22 is located at the nexus of Jordan’s shared border with Syria and Iraq. It functions as a support site for another U.S. outpost, the isolated Tanf garrison in Syria, situated along a key highway connecting Tehran to Damascus. From Tanf, U.S. forces have sought to disrupt Iran’s efforts to supply weapons to partners and proxies in Syria and beyond.
The Jan. 28 attack in Jordan killed three Army reservists from Georgia: Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46; Sgt. Breonna Moffett, 23; and Sgt. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24. Theirs were the first American deaths from hostile fire since Israel’s war in Gaza triggered repeated attacks on U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria by groups affiliated with Iran. There have been at least 168 such incidents since mid-October, the Pentagon said.
At Tower 22, dozens of other personnel were wounded in the blast, which struck a housing unit during the early morning while many of the 350 troops deployed there were asleep. In response to the deadly violence, U.S. warplanes on Friday struck more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria that military officials said were associated with the Quds Force, a unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and local militias it supports.
Although Tower 22 was outfitted with “multiple” electronic warfare systems capable of taking drones offline, it had limited means to protect itself. The defense official with direct knowledge of the military’s early assessment said the outpost was deemed a relatively low-threat environment. “This was based on the vast majority of the threats and 99% of the (Iranian-proxy) attacks being against facilities in Iraq and Syria,” the official told The Post.
The base’s defensive posture has changed in the attack’s aftermath, the official said, declining to elaborate.
An immediate takeaway from last week’s deadly attack in Jordan, the second U.S. official said, is the need for better drone-detection systems that can give American personnel more time to identify and destroy such threats before they can put lives at risk.